1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of obtain the BIOS version date in the windows operating system and, in particular, to a method of obtaining the BIOS version date in the windows operating system using dynamic virtual device drivers (VxDs).
2. Related Art
Due to the rapid development in computer hardware technologies, the BIOS is changed and upgraded by the computer manufacturers all the time. Since different BIOS""s support different hardware and services, it is thus very important to be able to obtain the BIOS version date to facilitate the programming of software that performs hardware tests.
In the conventional DOS, the BIOS version date can be obtained by reading the fixed BIOS memory. However, the windows operating system does not allow application routines to directly accessing the memory. Therefore, there is a difficulty in obtaining the BIOS version date in the windows operating system.
The method of obtaining the BIOS version date in the windows operating system disclosed by the present invention uses a dynamic virtual device driver (VxD) to implement the retrieval of the BIOS version date in the windows operating system. Utilizing the feature that the VxD can run in RING0 privilege and by defining the structure of input and output parameters, the disclosed method can obtain the system BIOS version date and the video BIOS version date from the BIOS.
Taking a system information display in a notebook computer test procedure Evolution as an example, the system BIOS version date and the video BIOS version date have to be displayed. After loading in the BIOSDATE.VxD, define in the input parameter structure that StartAddress is 0xffff0, PrepareSize is 0x400(1K). Using the READDATE function in the VxD, the value of CatchedValue in the return value structure is the expected system BIOS version date.
Defining In the output parameter structure that StartAddress is 0xc0000, PrepareSize is 0x400. Using the READDATE function in the VxD again, the value of CatchedValue in the return value structure is the expected video BIOS version date.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.